Fact Sheet From Peter C. Newman's Canadian Establishment Series, Part 1

This first installment is a distillation from the first few chapters of the third volume of Peter C. Newman's Canadian Establishment series: Titans. The next fact sheet will be more Conrad-Black-specific.

The subtext of the first part of the book, before the new Canadian Establishment is profiled in detail, is that the old Establishment culture, which Conrad Black was raised in, is all but faded. Most of the old Establishment firms that he portrays in Chapter 2, "Epitaph for the Family Dynasties," either have been folded up or have been embroiled in serious financial difficulties. The old, feared, exclusive clubs that used to be the hang-outs of the old Establishment figures are shadows of their former selves, as detailed in Chapter 3. The Establishmentarians that used to be in charge of Corporate Canada have been eased out by a new breed of meritocratic workaholics, so work-driven that at least one of them has placed phone calls during his "most intimate moments." (p. 11)

(I wonder how many people would find such a custom all-but regal if they knew that the businessperson who first acquired a reputation for doing something close to it was Jesse L. Livermore.)

Mr. Newman supplies the reason why the old Establishment went down on p. 10: the old Establishment was too egalitarian-minded, and thus not class-conscious enough. This lack of barrier - other than exclusion, snubbery and grown-up cheek - proved to be little blockage to the new Establishment from earning their way in. At times, what he writes in chapter 2 conveys the impression that the old Establishmentarians were, instead of being too arrogant, not arrogant enough; they feared Nemesis to the degree that they clamped down on healthy as well as excessive hubris in their hearts.

If they had any business strength, it would have to be in a characteristic style that could be labeled "efficiency," but is better described as spontaneity. It was a recurrent style of wheeler-dealing in Canada's old Establishment to make even multi-million-dollar deals over the course of a single meeting or even a phone call. If they had any business weakness, it would have to be inner parochiality. The new Canadian business Establishment is not only multicultural, but also is global-minded.

Another impression that can be gleaned from Chapter 2 is the old Establishment's ambivalent attitude towards the stock market. The family firm was at the heart of the older guard, and going public was often treated, if only in the spirit of wist, as a needed but ultimately temporary detour, to be ended when the founding family took the company private again. This attiitude, to the extent to which he shares it, is not unique with Conrad Black.

Nor is the Conrad Black discount, either. When Steve Roman of Denison and Roman Corp. died, Denison stock jumped up a "full point." (p. 39)

(Disclosure: Roman Corp. was the first stock I ever owned. Since the relevant statute of limitations has long past, I can reveal a little about the circumstances that made me a shareholder. I started to deliver the Globe and Mail in 1978; I still remember how I felt when I got to keep a twenty-dollar-bill for a week's work. It was a helluva step up from a dollar-a-week allowance. Back then, I was parsimonious by nature, so I had about a thousand bucks in my bank account by 1981. My dad, a now-retired stockbroker, opened an account in my own name. Since the compliance department was relatively meek at that time, the fact that I was still prepubescent didn't cause them to block the set-up of the account. My younger brother wasn't that lucky; he got a trust account, later. I bought ten shares of Roman, and still remember my dad's way of calling attention to a 4-for-1 stock split. He told me to look up the price, and explained what a share split was to me after I showed visible distress at its price dropping so much.)